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Modeling and Forecasting Glacier National Park Visitation

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Modeling and Forecasting Glacier National Park Visitation University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 2019 MODELING AND FORECASTING GLACIER NATIONAL PARK VISITATION Michael James Kernan University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Part of the Econometrics Commons, Macroeconomics Commons, Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration Commons, and the Regional Economics Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Kernan, Michael James, "MODELING AND FORECASTING GLACIER NATIONAL PARK VISITATION" (2019). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 11468. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/11468 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MODELING AND FORECASTING GLACIER NATIONAL PARK VISITATION By MICHAEL JAMES KERNAN Bachelor of Arts in Economics, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, 2014 Thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Economics The University of Montana Missoula, MT August 2019 Approved by: Scott Whittenburg, Dean of The Graduate School Graduate School Douglas Dalenberg, Chair Economics Jeffrey Bookwalter Economics Jennifer Thomsen Park, Recreation, and Tourism Management Kernan, Michael, M.A., Summer 2019 Economics Abstract Chairperson: Douglas Dalenberg National parks have recently seen increased visitation demand. Glacier Na- tional Park is located in an area where changes in weather and climate will occur at an accelerated rate. Changes in fire and precipitation regimes are taking place at a time when Glacier National Park is setting new visitation records. This paper uses regression and forecast models to investigate the changing landscape of park visitation. Findings suggest important impacts to monthly visitation and cycling on Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park are associated with forest fire activity and precipitation. The conclusions of this paper support per- ceptions about the effect natural occurrences have on park use and help give direction to actions that Glacier National Park can take to keep visitation high and promote efficient use of park facilities. Economic prosperity in com- munities around Glacier National Park relies on successful park operation bringing a seasonal influx of visitors each year. Adapting park planning to unpredictable natural events as well as forces outside the park will facilitate efficient use of resources in and around Glacier National Park. ii This thesis is based upon work supported by UM BRIDGES through funding from the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DGE-1633831. I would also like to acknowledge the support of my committee, Douglas Dalenberg, Jeffrey Bookwalter, and Jennifer Thomsen. iii 1 Introduction The United States is the birth place of national parks as the world knows them. Huge swaths of land were set aside “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people” (National Park Service, 2018a). Yellowstone was established as the first National Park in 1872. Later, in 1916 the “Organic Act” was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the National Park Service (NPS). It stated their “purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations” (National Park Service, 2018a). Since establishment of the parks and passage of this act, millions of people have indeed found enjoyment in national parks. The United States spans a vast area and each NPS site has unique fea- tures which affect visitation. Recent years have set attendance records at some parks and many people make it their goal to visit every US national park, with the National Park Travelers Club even awarding achievement cer- tificates to people as they rack up NPS unit visits (National Park Travelers Club, 2019). Whether a park is designated a national monument or national park also plays a role in visitors’ decision making processes. Weiler and Seidl (2004) find changes of designation from national monument to national park increases annual visits to the new national park while not detracting from the level of visits to other sites of lesser designations. NPS sites received 330,882,751 recreational visits in 2017, which was a slight dip from 2016 when the record was set at 330,971,689 recreational visits. Of these visitors in 2017, 3,305,512 were visitors to Glacier National Park, a record for Glacier and its first time exceeding three million visitors in one year (National Park Service, 2018b). The Crown of the Continent, Glacier National Park (GNP) was established 1 in 1910. It lies entirely in the US state of Montana and encompasses 4,100 square kilometers. The northern boundary of GNP is the Canadian border. Canada established Waterton Lakes National Park in the area north of the United States’ park. Congestion in GNP is an issue during peak season, but new activities, like cycling on Going-to-the-Sun Road (GTSR), are becoming more popular leading to increased visitation demand over a greater part of the year. Natural events, such as forest fires, can cause visitation to deviate from expectations. Models to forecast visitation or bicycle use on GTSR take factors affecting these use numbers into account and give the park an opportunity to better understand how and when visitors will use GNP. The goal of this paper is to model determinants of park visitation and interpret them alongside forecasts of future visitation. 2 Literature Review 2.1 Tourism and National Park Visitation The tourism industry works with a unique good; hotel rooms unfilled, restau- rant tables left open, and seats on an airplane cannot be stored and sold later (Chu, 2009). The US NPS is part of the tourism industry and they must use resources efficiently while facilitating positive experiences for visitors to their sites. When expectations are off and fewer people visit or too many visitors come in a short period of time, effective park management becomes an even more formidable task. Macroeconomic forces, park fees, travel costs, whether GTSR is open to vehicles, bicycle tourism, precipitation, air qual- ity/visibility, and forest fires are factors which influence visitation patterns to GNP. There are 418 NPS sites and 117 charge an entrance fee, including GNP which has charged entrance fees since 1914. Glacier increased entrance fees twice during the observation period in this paper; in 2015 and 2018. The 2 2018 increase took effect June 1st and raised entry fees by $5 per vehicle, from $30 to $35 (Alley, 2018). With this fee increase, GNP expects an in- crease in entrance fee revenue, indicating they think visitation demand is inelastic (Sage, Nickerson, Miller, Ocanas, & Thomsen, 2017). Schwartz and Lin (2006) find an increase in entrance and usage fees enacted in 1995, known as the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program (RFDP), lowered visitation relative to what the level would have been expected to otherwise be. With 1986-1995 data, they fit multivariate models to predict counter-factual visi- tation and compare this with actual visitation, including a control group of sites which were not part of the RFDP. When actual numbers of visitors are compared to their predicted values, 83% of annual visitation numbers are below the counter-factual (Schwartz & Lin, 2006). This is consistent with the law of demand. Ostergren, Solop, and Hagen (2005) find through factor analysis that people who agree with the statement "entrance fees are too high" also agree with the statements "hotel and food costs are too high" and "service fees are too high." The clustering of these statements indicates people consider it costly to visit NPS sites in general and not solely because of park fees (Ostergren et al., 2005). The debate around park fees can be subjective, but in almost all circumstances a $5 fee increase will not alter the already small proportion of overall cost which the entrance fee makes up. The circumstance where fee increases will be consequential, though, is among visitors who live within a few hours’ drive of GNP (Sage et al., 2017). Tourism as a commodity is different from many other products because the consumer must be transported to the good (Barry & O’Hagan, 1972). Na- tional Parks are relatively low cost vacation options, but as costs increase people will substitute away from distant parks and opt for parks closer to home. It is particularly important to control for travel cost when a study looks at multiple parks (Poudyal, Paudel, & Tarrant, 2013). Spurred by high gas prices and gas rationing in the 1970s, Kamp, Crompton, and Hensarling 3 (1979) surveyed travelers to see how their stated preferences for traveling would change under higher gas prices or more severe rationing regimes. Re- sponses varied depending on the reason for travel and the size of vehicle which the respondent owned, but there was a fairly even split between peo- ple saying they would either use alternative forms of transportation, shorten their trip, or stay home (Kamp et al., 1979). Gas availability was so tight at this time that the government even discouraged pleasure travel, resulting in a 13% decrease in National Park visitation relative to the previous year (Kamp et al., 1979). Oh and Hammitt (2011) also used surveys during a more contemporary period of high gas prices in the mid-2000s to ask how people intended to change their travel behavior. As expected, higher gas prices led to less travel or different forms of travel. Gas prices are often used to incorporate travel costs into models.
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